Samantha's female cub - July 22, 2012Today the focus was on education outreach, which meant field work was again limited. We gave ‘she who is called’ Oliana her medicine, of course. She was much more relaxed today than during yesterday’s rain—a totally different bear. We also tracked down June whose GPS had stopped transmitting just after midnight last night. We found her active signal on a remote logging road. We took a chance and began calling to her as we geared up to hike in. To our surprise and relief, we spotted her walking down the road towards us when we turned around. GPS unit easily changed. She’s back on the map.
The photo is of Samantha’s female cub from a week ago. As a female, she will likely establish a territory in the area. She has a personality that shows promise for research. It is almost time to give names to these cubs that are the great great grandcubs of Shadow (Shadow, Blackheart, Braveheart, Samantha, this cub).
As a side note, we appreciated that Grand Ely Lodge hosted the Hope Education Building meeting yesterday as a favor, just as they hosted our monthly board meetings for years in the past.
We thank Lily Fans for recent donations. Donations beyond the $15,000 you donated as part of the Lilypad Picnic and the silent auction have brought the building fund to over $549,000, leaving $351,000 to make the $900,000 needed.
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center